Olivia Wilde said she reached out to Pamela Anderson after seeing Anderson’s documentary, describing how Anderson’s advice helped her through the emotional pressure surrounding the Don’t Worry Darling press tour.
Olivia Wilde didn’t expect the Don’t Worry Darling press tour fallout to spill into her personal life the way it did.
In a recent appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast. the 42-year-old looked back at the rumors and “perceived drama” surrounding the film’s promotion. and how it affected her in ways that went beyond headlines. Don’t Worry Darling opened in theaters in September 2022. and Pamela Anderson’s documentary Pamela. A Love Story followed a few months later in January 2023.
Wilde said when she watched the documentary, she reached out to Anderson right away.
“I actually learned this from — this sounds so crazy. But after I saw the documentary, I reached out to her, and I was like, ‘Yo, respect. Just want to say big fan,’” Wilde shared.
According to Wilde, Anderson told her she was “aware of some of the s–t” Wilde was going through. In the middle of that public scrutiny, Anderson’s message was blunt and strangely grounding: “The most rebellious thing you can do is stay soft. Don’t let it harden you.”
Wilde said Anderson was speaking from experience in the public eye, and that the documentary gave her the space to tell her side of things.
“It was so hard, because I wanted to be like, ‘Can I just talk to people? Can I just go and say, ‘That’s not true! That’s not true!’” Wilde recalled. “And it was like, ‘No, that won’t help.’ And that was really hard.”
What made it especially tough, Wilde said, was the sense that the noise kept pulling the conversation away from the work.
“I was like, ‘It’s not about me. It’s about this movie that everyone works so hard to make,’” she explained. “And I felt like I was working on behalf of hundreds of people who had worked through Covid to make something really difficult.”
She also described a frustration that she couldn’t defend herself, balanced against a realization that she had to keep the focus on the film.
“I felt frustrated that I couldn’t defend myself, but it also felt like, ‘Okay, it’s not about you. Just get the movie out.’ And the pummeling that I took was so insanely disproportionate,” the House alum said.
During the podcast, Wilde also revealed how she knew that her marriage to Jason Sudeikis was over.
Olivia Wilde Pamela Anderson Pamela A Love Story Don’t Worry Darling Call Her Daddy Jason Sudeikis press tour rumors
Stay soft?? That’s what she told her?? honestly sounds like some Instagram wisdom lol.
So wait, this is about a movie press tour drama and then suddenly her marriage is over too? People really can’t just promote a film anymore.
I don’t even get why Olivia couldn’t just come out and say “that’s not true.” Like, wouldn’t that help? Unless the documentary said the opposite or something, idk.
Pamela Anderson telling her to stay soft… meanwhile everybody was already saying stuff about Jason Sudeikis like years ago. This feels like the same cycle, just different outfits. Also Call Her Daddy is such a random place for this lol.